A Different Perspective

“My greatest challenge has been to change the mindset of people. Mindsets play strange tricks on us. We see things the way our minds have instructed our eyes to see.”

Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank whom I have introduced in a previous blog post, reflects in this quote on the difficulty of steering a person out of their comfort zone and into a different way of thinking and viewing the world. Yunus has put much effort into this process, through his leaps to end world poverty and his many novels and works explaining how to do it.

I think, like Yunus, that our mindsets are something we are stubborn in holding onto. It becomes a part of us, making it hard to see things in a different light. I know that I can easily become so caught up in my own outlook on my surroundings, that I fail to view the world from a different perspective. Sometimes a different perspective is all we need to be moved to action. Once our eyes are opened to the lives and ways of others, we can begin to move forward in efforts leading to social change. It’s so difficult to alter your perceptions and the way you think, but I believe that the alteration can truly be a blessing in allowing you to have a heart for others.